Developer and voting rights

Help him sell some lots or depending on the cost, perhaps go in with some neighbors and buy a few at least enough to cancel his majority. That or you could try the lawsuit route, a 50/50 crap-shoot at best.

I am confused here. You say he has the majority of lots but don't say they are on the board. Seems to me that the board has a bit more involvement here in the apathy or getting what one wants. Even though he may have the majority of individual votes does not mean they carry a majority of board votes. His majority of general votes can do things like vote to get rid of board members or to help rewrite the rules. That's basically what your individual general membership votes major role is. Now the board vote isn't any more "powerful" as it is taken to represent the HOA as a whole. Majority vote on the board is different in terms of it is taken in context of the HOA as a whole as they represent owners as a group.

So basically if you really wanted to re-write your rules, it takes 51% to 100% of the voting members to change the rules. Read your documents to find out the exact percentage. Would his percentage add up to enough? Plus if he's not paying for assessment on 16 properties, does this mean 1 vote for those 16? I wonder if they are not all tied together under one property. Something worth defining.

Remember if your Developer no longer owns and operates the HOA, it is NOT developer controlled. He just happens to be a majority HOMEOWNER in your HOA. The voting rights and references to the developer should be rewritten now in your documents to remove the whole "Class A/B" or developer references as they no longer exist. It usually is then 1 vote (in good standing) per lot. That could then washout his majority if you all work together or even work with him. I am sure he would like some rules changes that aren't all that bad. It could be no one like his decisions based on the fact he used to be the developer not that he's an invested homeowner like the rest of you now.

We've thought of that but no one has the money to do that. These are high end lots with lake views and are over $100k each (at the height of the real estate bubble - they were over $350k each !). If I had the money I would definitely buy him out and get him outta here !

He has the majority of votes with his lots plus the board which he has control of. We can't make any changes to the board because of his voting majority. His wife is a board member which to many of us is a conflict of interest. We need 75% to make changes but every time we try, he votes it down if it doesn't benefit him or if he just doesn't agree with us. If we had the money we would buy him out and take control of our future but we don't. It's a very frustrating situation. Our annual meeting is this saturday and we are doing everything we can to collect enough votes to make some changes. We hope we can do it this year.

Marsha,

This comes too late to help you but the biggest lesson I have learned from this forum is never buy into an HOA that is not yet complete. You just have no way of knowing what the developer will do in the future so the safest course is to wait until he is out of the picture completely.

It was complete when we bought - as far as we knew. We didn't find out until almost 2 yrs later that he was planning a Phase II. Guess developers don't need to disclose that. If we'd have waited until he was out of the picture, we would never have the beautiful acreage we have now with our retirement home on it and awesome views overlooking the lake. One can waste their life waiting. We will deal with whatever comes.

There should have been some language in the CC&R's giving notice that the developer could add or annex additional property in the future. You should check with your state real estate agency to see if some sort of property report was required and whether additional development needed to be disclosed.


At some point it may be in your best interest to get on with your life. In my own situation I found that our BOD was populated by a bunch of retired blue-collar workers for whom the world had no further use. Not only were they lacking any business or management experience of any kind, not a single person on the board had ever lived in Arizona until they retired here, rendering them totally ignorant of state law. I got on the board with the intent of trying to inject some degree of professionalism and found myself outvoted 8-to-1 on virtually every issue. I lasted one term. I tear my hair out at the chaos and waste that has ensued but I finally came to the conclusion that I am too old to care any more. The association's job is to maintain the roads. The road to my 40-acre parcel requires very little maintenance and I can always get in and out in my 4wd and often in 2wd sedans. I pay my $128 per year assessment and let the idiots on the board implode on themselves while I enjoy my retirement.